Taytay Falls (Majayjay, Laguna)

I spent last Saturday on a daytrip to Majayjay, Laguna to have a look at the not-so-rarely visited Taytay Falls. The first big mistake we made was leaving past 7am that day because the traffic was already heavy from SLEX all the way to Calamba Exit. Both the Alaminos and Los Banos routes were moving very slowly so it didn't seem to make any difference from this point. We headed east through Los Banos, Bay, Calauan ... then got directions from locals to a secondary road that skips San Pablo and goes straight to Nagcarlan. From Nagcarlan we drove to Liliw (some confusing roads as we went through this town) and then Majayjay.

There were small road signs that pointed to the falls, and the roads were narrow for about 7kms until we reached the entrance where we were charged 10 pesos for bringing in our vehicle. A few more kilometers of very narrow two-way roads... and we were at the registration point. Each person had to pay 20 pesos (I think it's more if you stay overnight) and sign on some logbook.

We took our backpacks and walked for about 1km. The path was safe and easy, they had a narrow cemented walkway and handrails, and very little obstacles. It was weekend so there were A LOT of people in the area. Some of them even had tents and cookware.

There were some people above the falls area and a path going up from the left side where a small grotto stood, so we thought there would be less people and cleaner water in that area. There was a warning sign though that people shouldn't go up here, but I think they didn't mind the danger to get a good view from above. Along the steep path was a small gate which was sealed with chickenwire, and a very narrow space on one side where one person could barely pass through (really very dangerous because the rocks there are slippery and the chickenwire is the first thing you will hit if you slip).

The water was ice cold up there, actually, enough to make my hands numb... it took a short while to get used to the cold water. We were the only ones there for some time until a few more stopped by, but it wasn't enough to crowd the area.

We spent about an hour up there until the sky turned dark. I had my camera with me and could sense heavy rains so we started to pack up and leave before it gets damaged (I just paid off the first installment so it's going to be painful) and the situation becomes too dangerous to go back down.
The rain started pouring when we got down so we had to rush back to the jump-off point for cover. Fortunately, we had our stuff waterproofed so only the bags got wet. I still had to run because I was afraid some moisture might get into the electronics I carried with me.
More bad luck on our way back -- we got semi-flat tires! We had to drive another 7km back to town before we totally run out of air on the tires (we didn't check the spare so it wasn't an option during the heavy rains). At the vulcanizing shop we just found out that there were no holes, so we knew it just wasn't inflated properly from our last gas stop.
After that, we decided to head to Tagaytay for dinner. It was past 6 when we stopped at a gas station (in Sto Tomas, Batangas) and found out that if we headed east from here, it would be unsafe because the route was mountainous and sparsely populated. A passerby also suggested that we take Sta. Rosa to get there. The traffic was still bad by the time we crossed SLEX so we decided to go back to Manila.
Just less than a kilometer from the exit to the expressway we saw Leslie's (where we were supposed to eat in Tagaytay). They say this restaurant was popular for their Bulalo. Well, it wasn't bad, the soup was fine, but I think they have to find a way to make the beef less chewy. That was it... we paid and headed home through heavy traffic again.
Next time we'll plan to do travels way before sunrise. I think I got so used to easy driving on holidays.